Don’t fear the fundamentals

I admit, I like bright, shiny things. I’m easily distracted and I often find myself drawn into projects and new business ideas purely because I get fixated on them.

I am a serial entrepreneur. Admitting this is not easy, but as they say, recognizing you have a problem is the first step.

With that moniker comes the dubious honor of always having your ideas competing for attention and time.
Growing a business is incredibly hard. Make no mistake, it requires sacrifice, hard work, delayed gratification and a bunch of habits I have yet to fully master.

There are lots of moving parts in a business so optimising your processes, developing strategies, planning and benchmarking are all critical, but none more so than focusing on the fundamentals.

James Carr, on his blog says “The greatest skill in any endeavor is doing the work. And for that reason, most people don’t need more time, more money, or better strategies. They just need to do the real work and master the basics.”

I find this especially true when you’re a multi-business entrepreneur. Whether you’re doing the work yourself or have a team to execute it’s critical that you have a bias toward action.
If sales are down, don’t spend three weeks commissioning a study on the macro environment, hit the phones!
If your app isn’t getting downloads, don’t run a 4 week test on a tweak to the UX, promote the hell out of it on social media.
If social media tells you it’s rubbish, well then you may have to go back to the drawing board 😉